Katelyn Doherty can do it all on the volleyball court. The senior at Menlo-Atherton was a middle blocker last season for the Central Coast Section runner-up squad. Next, with her club team, Doherty filled the role of defensive specialist. Now, she’s both an outside hitter and a setter at M-A, which won its first CCS title in girls volleyball Saturday.

“I don’t know where we would be this year without her,” M-A coach Ron Whitmill said. “She gets overshadowed so much because she has a great player like Ali playing next to her. People don’t really appreciate what she can do. … If we didn’t have someone as versatile as her on the team, we would have never gotten through all the injuries that we’ve had this year.”

Doherty had 25 assists and 15 digs during Tuesday night’s first-round match in the CIF NorCal Div. I playoffs, with her sixth kill sealing a 25-23, 25-22, 25-22 win at home against No. 5 San RamonValley-Danville, the North Coast Section runner-up. The fourth-seeded Bears (28-7) next travel Saturday to Sacramento to face No. 1 St. Francis (36-2), champion of the Sac-Joaquin Section.

“This could be the seniors’ last night time playing in this gym,” Doherty said. “It’s been great. This team is fantastic. I’m so glad that this last year we could put it together and go really far.”

With the crowd on its feet, M-A squandered four match points before Whitmill called a timeout. The message was simple.

“He said to calm down,” Doherty said. “We had two opportunities to get one point. He knew we could do it. We just had to execute.”

It was as simple as dig, set, kill — with Bears senior Ali Spindt lofting a pass across the net to Doherty, who took a big swing that San Ramon Valley (31-11) could only watch hit the middle of the court. Match point was set up by two kills from sophomore Eliza Gutierraz-Dewar and a block from senior Saane Fakalata.

“We feed off big crowds, even if they’re against us,” said M-A junior Pauli King, who had a team-high 10 kills. “We feed off energy in the room and I think it helps us step up to the challenge and play our best.”

It was the third sweep in four postseason matches for the Bears, who needed five sets in the CCS semifinals.

“Winning all those games in three just makes it even better,” Spindt said. “We want to win. We want to go to state.”

The season began with Spindt and King in street clothes, both nursing injuries. Spindt, the PAL Bay Player of the Year last year, gauged her shoulder at 80 percent at the moment.

“I think it hurts the fact that she can’t practice every day and that she’s not at full strength offensively,” Whitmill said. “But she does so many things other than hitting — her setting, her defense, her blocking. Just her presence on the court I think gives a lot of her teammates confidence.”

M-A won the first three points of Game 1 before the Wolves took six in a row. But the Bears didn’t panic and methodically traded points, eventually moving ahead 21-17. San Ramon Valley fought back to tie it at 23-all before King had a kill off a timeout, then served an ace to give M-A the early edge.

“We’d get into holes in the beginning of matches, so we’ve been focusing on not letting points up, getting sideouts when we give up the point and staying aggressive regardless of the situation,” King said.

San Ramon Valley relied heavily on senior outside hitter Emily Reder, who had a match-high 18 kills. Meanwhile, M-A spread the wealth to keep the Wolves from gaining any momentum. The Bears erased an early 5-1 deficit in Game 2 and dug their way back with a five-point run to make it 11-9.

“Since we’re such a deep team, we’re more consistent,” Doherty said. “We can put the ball to anyone and count on them to put it away.”

Vytas Mazeika is a sports reporter at The Daily News based out of Menlo Park. He covers athletics at every level, from high school to Stanford to the pros. He also designs the sports pages and copy edits for The Daily News print edition. Mazeika graduated from Carlmont High in 1994 and earned an English bachelor's degree from UCLA.

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